124 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



or that colony, thmi return, after about two 

 hours' work. Now, the point I am getting at 

 is this: A bicycle can be purchased for less than 

 the price of an average good horse. The repair 

 might be fifteen cents a year; oil for lubricating 

 the healings, perhaps another fifteen cents. 

 Outside of that there is no other expense. Place 

 this balance-sheet over against that for the 

 expense of a hoise, barn, hay. labor, i-epairs, etc. 

 Now see how your account will stand. Well, a 

 young man can make his trips to his out-yards, 

 on the wheel — yes. make nine-tenths of his 

 trips in that way. How about hauling the bees 

 home? As a general thing, a farmer in the 

 vicinity, with his double team, can be hired to 

 do the work foi' you— that is, hauling— for a 

 crate of honey or a small consideration in 

 money. He can also be hired to haul home 

 your crop of honey, and bring hack all the sup- 

 plies that you may need. With a little fore- 

 thought, all these things can be carried in a few 

 trips. In the spring, for hauling the bees to the 

 out-apiaries, if the services of a farmei' are not 

 available at that time, a livery may be hired at 

 about two dollars a day. Ten dollars ought to 

 cover all the expense of hauling for at least one 

 yard, and possibly two. Even if it were twenty, 

 this would be a great deal cheaper than taking 

 care of a horse for one year, to say nothing of 

 the other expense, first cost, interest on the 

 money, and other risks. 



If you are a bee-keeper and also a farmer, 

 then the horse would be more serviceable. But 

 the point I would urge, in a nutshell, is this: 

 That a young man in a locality where the roads 

 are not sandy, can manage a systetn of two or 

 three yards cheaper with a good bicycle, sup- 

 plemented by the aid of a farmer or liveryman, 

 than he could to keep a horse, buggy, and all 

 the other paraphernalia connected with the 

 horse-business. I have tried the scheme for 

 one year, and I think I know something of what 

 I am tarlking about. 



In conclusion, let me add that I do not advise 

 the use of a bicycle for elderly men. 



[The above we had not intended to imblish in 

 our own journal: but as there has been some 

 inquiry as to what we had to say on that subject. 

 we give it in answer thereto.] 



THE HIBERNATION OF THE HONEY-BEE. 



TKITE HIBKliNATION EXI'LAINKI) l!V Ml!. I'. II. 

 EIAVOOD. 



Mr. S. Corneil, of Lindsey, Ontario. Canada, 

 writes us that Mr. Doolittle's article on hiber- 

 nation, page 4."). is somewhat misleading, and 

 hoped we might see our way clear to i)iiblish an 

 article by P. H. EI\\ood, in the Canaduui Bee 

 Journal, page "iSl, 188(). This article, he says, 

 was a '"settler" when the subject was up for 

 discussion several years ago. No one ever at- 

 tempted to answer it. We have looked up the 

 article in (luestioii: and as it seems to cover the 

 subject so thoroughly we are glad to make the 

 accompanying <'\tract from it: 



What is hibfriiMtinnV Marsludl Hall sa.\s. "Slei-p 

 and liiberiiatioii are similar peiiodical piu'iionicna 

 leading' tu similar results, and (liftViinji' only in de- 

 cree." As Dr. Hall is piobably tlic liijihcst author- 

 ity we liave on the subject, and as his di'linition has 

 been accepted 1)> all invcstijiatois, it would scfin to 

 l)e well foi' smattcifis in st-ieiH'c to look u)) the 

 standard definition and accept it. lallier tliaii to 

 coin another which shall be accurate oidy iu niea- 

 surinK the want of knowledjre of its author. The 

 Germans recognize liil)ernation as a i)ecidiarly deep 

 sleep, and their name for it is winter sleep (See Uur- 

 Uiw't^ Winter Schlaf, livrlln). Do honey-bet's hibei- 

 natt', or is the ([Uiel of winter onl>' a sleep, or has it 

 passed l)eyond sleep into hibernation':' Di'. Edward 



Smith says a man in deep sleep expired i.'y g-raius of 

 carbonic acid jier minute: on the t readwlieel, 43.36 

 grains ]iev minute. A waking hedgehog yielded SO.S 

 times more carbonic acid than one in a state of hi- 

 bernation. Tliuswe have a ratio between sleep and 

 waking of 1 to 10, nearly; between hibernation (not 

 piofound) and waking, "l to 20.5. If, instead of the 

 treadwheel, we take walking at three miles per 

 liour rZn grains carbonic acid per minute), which ex- 

 ertion would coriesiHuid more neaily witli thatof 

 the hedgehog, we have a ratio less than 1 to 6. Car- 

 penter says of the liee: " When breeding, the evolu- 

 tit)n of heat and consinnjition of o.\> gen takes place- 

 at least twenty times as rapidly as when in a state 

 of repose." Tlus is the same ratio that exists be- 

 tween the hedgehog's hibernation and waking. 

 But, diopping these comparisons as illogical, we- 

 may note the number of inspirations and the 

 amount of food taken during the winter, which 

 jiroves conclusi\ely that, in its winter repose, tlie 

 honey-bee luis passed far beyond the jihysiological 

 limits of sleep into hibernation. You will notice hy 

 the definition, that, where sleep ends, hibernation 

 begins — there is no "((uiescence" between. The 

 daily summer sleep of the bat and dormouse is a 

 true hibernation. Dr. Hall says, "Tlie (juantity of 

 respiration is inversely as the degree of irritability 

 of the muscular tiber.tlie former being marked by 

 the quantity of oxygen consumed in a given time 

 ascertained by the imeumatometer. the latter by 

 the force of galvanism necessary to demonstrate its 

 existence." The cajiability of |iassing into a state 

 of hibernati(m depends upon the capability of tak- 

 ing on an incieased muscidar irritaliility. Were the 

 respiration diminished without the increased mus- 

 cular irritability, deatli would take place from the 

 torpoi- of slow asphyxia; and were the respiration 

 increased without the diminution of the irritaliility, 

 the animal would die from over-stimulation, as in 

 those suddenly aroused from the state of hiberna- 

 tion." As such tiitilng causes as walking- over the 

 floor, touching the oijei'atiiig-table, etc., are sviflH- 

 cient to excite respiration, hibernating animals 

 adopt various means of securing themselves from 

 disturbance; and when the temperature approach- 

 es ."iO ° tliej' seek out their hibernacles in trees, 

 caves, and burrows in the earth. It was foimd 

 that hibernating bats died when subjected to the 

 motion of ;i stage-coach foracou|ile of days. The 

 same treatmeiU would \nidoubtedly seriously injure 

 a hibernating swai-m of bees. It was that close ol)- 

 si'rver, Mr. L. C. Root, who first called my attention 

 to the injurious conse<|uences of the needless dis- 

 turbance of liees dining their winter sleep. And 

 ever}' farmer boy knows how unwholesome it is to 

 be suddeidy aroused from a deep sleep to immedi- 

 ately participate in the active diUies of the day. 

 How comforting to the iisi)ig generation that the 

 doctors now say the process of awakening should 

 tie a gradual one ! 



Hibernation differs widely in different animals. 

 While pt)s.sessing- the same general characteristics, 

 yet in no two is it exactly alike: and we must 7U)t 

 exiH'ct the honey-bee. which differs so much from 

 every thing else of the animal kind, to conform in 

 every particular to the already observed conditions 

 of hibernation. In some animals, hibernation is- 

 very profound: in others, not. I have already giv- 

 en an illustration of the latter. A Inljernating- bat, 

 in a i)neumatometer. consumed but one seventy- 

 second part as nuich oxygen as one awake. The 

 bat may be said to belong to the former class. In 

 some animals, before the period of hibernation a 

 lai'ge amount of fat is stored in the body. Tins iiy- 

 dro-ca\bonaccous dejiosit sei-ves as a store of lieat 

 and force during that i>eriod. In this class of pro- 

 founil hibei-nators, the total loss of weight is some- 

 times 40 per cent, or fully as nuu'h as usually .sus- 

 tained in starvation. Another class of hiliernating- 

 animals stoi-e their chief supply of food outside of 

 the l)od>, and awake atinter\als to i>aitake of it. 

 The marmot, liedgehog. squirrels, flornuce, etc., be- 

 long- to this class. To this class w(> must assign the 

 honey-bee, the honey being the stored suijply of 

 heat and force. Some of this class liave a partial 

 depenfl(>nce upon the fat of the bod>. but it is not- 

 asseited that this is the case with tlie honey-liee. 

 Somi' lu'e-pldlosophers, howevei', maintain that bees 

 Ue) t on a short allowance through t lu' fall and su])- 

 lilied later for winter, do not usually come thiough 

 so well. Tliere is also a small school of physiologists 

 who assert that all cai'bonaceous food must first be 

 convei'ted into adipose tissue before it can be use- 

 ful foi- the production of heat and foi-ce. Tlus ap- 



